Friday, August 10, 2007

The Man Booker longlist has been announced, and congratulations to the nominees for one of the most prestigious prizes in literature. And since I know you are dying to place some cold hard cash on who you think is going to win, you can do so at the William Hill betting site. Yes, I'm serious (I heart England). Blog aficionado Ian McEwan (ha! I wish. He doesn't really read this blog) is currently the favorite at 3-1 for ON CHESIL BEACH. (thanks to the Millions for the tip).

And finally... uh... did I mention it's August in publishing? Yeah, I think I did that. Hmm... let's see.... did I mention you can bet on the Booker prize? Totally insane, right? Oh, shoot, already talked about that.

Wait, what are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be at the beach by now? Shoo! Go!

Beach? Hmphf. You NYC--and, ahem, SF--publishing people might be able to lounge around in August, but for us authors, the work is never done. (That snapping sound you hear is the muse cracking her whip).

Yes, there are slow periods in publishing in summer and in December, but it doesn't really mean work isn't get done. It's just that more people than usual do go on vacation in the summer, and since on the editorial side it takes a committee to do most everything, it can slow down the process.

I haven't actually found that my own workload has decreased though, because I'm still doing submissions and I tend to get more queries in the summer.

The fact that McEwan's the current favourite with the bookies is a good indicator that he won't win and probably won't even make the shortlist. In fact, the fact that he made the longlist has led to a huge amount of kerfuffle in the UK literary press on the following areas: (a) McEwan shouldn't have been nominated because his book is a novella and not a novel and therefore should not be eligible for consideration (discuss), (b) McEwan shouldn't have been nominated because of the Big Plagiarism Allegations on Atonement, and (c) McEwan shouldn't have been nominated because he's been doing the same thing for the last decade and it's getting boring, besides why should he get nominated when writers like Faulkes haven't been (discuss). It's really very entertaining to watch.

Facebook:

Twitter

I'm on Google+!

Instagram:

Tumblr too:

Search the blog:

Loading...

Affiliate Links

Links to buy books and other media and products via online vendors are affiliate links, for which I will receive an affiliate commission that goes to support the overhead associated with maintaining the blog and forums. The opinions expressed about the books and other media remain entirely my own. Swear!